This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast spotlights the drawings of Gustav Klimt as presented in “The Magic of Line,” a survey exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum on view through September 23. Joining me to discuss Klimt’s works on paper is Albertina curator Marian Bisanz-Prakken, who organized the show.

While the development of modernism in Paris receives far more attention in America than the development of modernism in other parts of Europe, it wasn’t just Picasso and Matisse and their followers who changed art in the early twentieth century. In Vienna, Gustav Klimt transformed himself from a court painter into a symbolist influenced by the way Vienna’s intellectuals began to encourage us to look inward, to a space-flattening modernist who dared to cross the lines that separated Catholics from Jews in segregated Vienna and who made erotic paintings and drawings a central focus of his work.

Bisanz-Prakken oversees the Gustav Klimt drawings catalogue raisonne project. At the Albertina she is the curator of Dutch drawings (she has published numerous articles on Rembrandt’s drawings) as well as the curator for turn-of-the-century Austrian works on paper.

Bisanz-Prakken and I discuss:

• How Klimt used drawings as both studies for paintings, especially portraits, and as stand-alone works;
• Why Klimt, who so valued drawing that there are over 4,000 known drawings by him still in circulation, apparently never drew landscape (which he painted often) or his partner Emilie Floge; and
• How Klimt’s interest in textiles and fashion comes through in his drawings.

On the second segment, artist Roy Dowell tells us about works he’s showing in “Made in LA 2012,” the Hammer biennial. Among the works we discuss is the work that the Hammer and LAXART installed as a billboard on Culver City’s La Cienega Boulevard. [Image: Roy Dowell, Untitled #1008, 2011.]

Dowell is the chairman of the graduate fine arts department at the Otis College of Art and Design. His work is in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MOCA, the Hammer and the Berkeley Art Museum.

How to listen: To download the program to your PC/mobile device, click here. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes or RSS. Stream the program at MANPodcast.com.

The Modern Art Notes Podcast is an independent production of Modern Art Notes Media. The program is edited by Wilson Butterworth. The MAN Podcast is released under this Creative Commons license. For images of the works discussed on this week’s show, click through to the jump.

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of a Lady with Cape and Hat, 1897 – 1898. Collection of the Albertina, Vienna.

Gustav Klimt, Floating Female Figure with Outstretched Left Arm, 1900-1901.

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of a Woman in Three-Quarter Profile, 1901. Collection of the Albertina, Vienna.

Gustav Klimt, Two Studies of a Reclining Draped Figure, 1901. Collection of the Albertina, Vienna.

Gustav Klimt, Two Studies of a Seated Nude with Long Hair, about 1901-1902. Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Gustav Klimt, Study for a Portrait of Sonia Knips, 1897-98. Collection of the Albertina, Vienna.

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Sonia Knips, 1898. Collection of the Belvedere, Vienna.

Gustav Klimt, Standing Woman, Leaning on a Chair, Study for a Portrait of Rose von Rosthorn-Friedmann. 1900-1901. Collection of the Albertina, Vienna.

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Rose von Rosthorn-Friedmann, 1900.

Gustav Klimt, Reclining Nude with Leg Raised, 1912-13. Collection of the Albertina, Vienna.

Gustav Klimt, Reclining Nude, 1914-15. Collection of the Albertina, Vienna.

Roy Dowell, Untitled #1008, 2011.

Roy Dowell, site-specific billboard as part of “Made in LA 2012.”

Roy Dowell, Untitled #948, 2008.

Roy Dowell, Untitled #945, 2008.

Roy Dowell, Untitled #535, 1991.